Can someone please tell me why the Dodgers pitched to Barry Bonds in the 9th inning last night?

The situation: Game tied 1-1, 9th inning. Paul Quantrill is the new pitcher. No one out, David Bell on first after a single. The hitter who had the best offensive season ever last year, and who has started this season just as hot, Barry Bonds comes to bat. Jeff Kent, who is coming off a wrist injury is on deck. Why do you pitch to Bonds there?

The worst part was listening to the ESPN announcers trying to justify pitching to him, and talking the whole at-bat about how its the right thing to do and the smart choice, up until the moment he laces the game winning hit. Tools, the whole lot of them.

"I thought it was cool how HHH just tossed Jericho out of the ring and made him vanish, possibly into another dimension, at the end of the match." - Dr. Unlikely says the funniest thing I've ever read on Wienerville.

If it was the middle of last year you would pitch to bonds because kent is usually very dangerous too. You wouldn't want to put a hitter on and still pitch to him. This year though in that situation you give him the intentional unintentional walk. If that were the cards i would be throwing a huge huge fit.

But I mean..putting the winning run with no outs on second, come on people, common sense, bonds may hit 73 homeruns, but its still 1 every 4 at bats...gotta go for it, if he burns you, it was the best that did it, no shame in that.

Medalla, right now if I'm a manager against the Giants, Bonds never sees a pitch. It's like playing against the Bulls when Jordan was at his best...make the rest of the team beat you, I think. The way things are right now, I'd rather have 1st and 2nd w/ no outs than to give Bonds anything to hit. And I think that strategy will win more than it will lose.

"I thought it was cool how HHH just tossed Jericho out of the ring and made him vanish, possibly into another dimension, at the end of the match." - Dr. Unlikely says the funniest thing I've ever read on Wienerville.

Putting the winning run on 2nd with no outs is simply ridiculous. It's an awful lot easier to get a runner from 2nd home with no outs than a runner from first, even if Bonds is at the plate. Walking Bonds would have been the absolute wrong decision at that point.

In that situation you just tip your cap to Bonds. He got nothing to hit that at bat and still managed to doink one down the left field line to win the game. That sure as hell wasn't what he was trying to do, but hell, it worked.

Rant alert:

It's amazing that no matter what Bonds does it seems that there's so little credit given to him. For instance, when he hits this double on one hell of a pitch, it's not observed that he made one hell of a play getting to that pitch. Instead it's "Why did the Dodgers pitch to him?" There's respect afforded him, but very little credit given him. Ah, hell, I'm not going to prove my point, so I'll just stop.

I respect the guy.... and nobody ever said i didn't. He's a model for consistency. I hate to say it though... he's probably the hottest in the game other than marrero so you just dont pitch to him. Especially when you have a guy just returning from injury on deck.

Bonds may be one of the best ever.

I am not knocking the fact that he was able to get a great hit.... i'm just knocking the managerial decision that allowed him a chance to get that hit. I can understand if you had a decent guy behind him (which kent is) but kent is just coming off an injury. You walk bonds and then pitch to kent. With luck you get a double play which makes it 2 outs and a man at 3rd. With no bonds at the plate.

How much more credit can you give a guy than to say it's IMO a bad decision to pitch to him in that situation? The man is an unearthly hitter these days, capable of nailing seemingly anything out for a hit no matter what you try on him. That's about as high a compliment as I can think of to give someone.

And as for whether or not walking him would have been the wrong decision, well not walking him sure as hell wasn't the right decision! ;)

(edited by spf2119 on 12.4.02 1239)"You used it to shove your miserable daughter down our throats week in and week out...not anymore!" - Ric Flair gives me hope, Raw 3/18/02
"I thought it was cool how HHH just tossed Jericho out of the ring and made him vanish, possibly into another dimension, at the end of the match." - Dr. Unlikely says the funniest thing I've ever read on Wienerville.
twoelitistsnobs, filling all your bitter pop culture reviewing needs

Bonds is hotter than that because he has more than 5 RBI. Michael Barrett is hotter than that. But I'm not saying it's not pretty awesome. It's also an indication that Tony LaRussa and Dave Duncan are retarded if they really think that Mike Matheny and Mike DiFelice should ever play ahead of him. Neither of them can hit, and you're already wasting a lineup spot on Placido Polanco (.300 hitter, sure, but he might get 5 homers and 40 RBI if he's at the top of his game). They've got enough guys that'll get on base (Vina, Edmonds, Pujols, Drew) that having another bat that'll both get on base and drive runs in would be beneficial. But then, I'm not a guy that won one World Series with a team that should've won about three, so what do I know.

And to go further with this, Marrero's not even BAD defensively. LaRussa is lame.

Marrero at the time i posted those stats was the all around hitter. But Scottie he's another one that is going to get on base and so on.... but he's not a home run power hitter or enough of an rbi guy yet. (he has awesome speed though). Edmonds, Pujols, Drew, Martinez are the power hitters on the team. Hell Pujols broke the Rookie NL record for homeruns and had i believe 130 rbi's. He's not just a get on base guy.

Drew has the potential to be an player of the year candidate but he gets hurt.... he's got power with a sweet swing. If he can stay healthy....

Martinez is Martinez.

Edmonds can hit and nail rbi's. He produces. He's not a get on base for the other guys type player.

Renteria can be a rbi producer but rt now he fills the get on base roll. So dues vina and polanco. Marrero isn't catching because we have two decent catchers and marrero is filling the Jack of All trades roll perfectly. He can play anywhere.

I dont agree with Larussa's coaching sometime. Last Sunday we went into the ninth with a 6 -3 advantage.... and lost it in the 11th on a walk off homerun.